Managing iterations

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When an iteration is in progress, you can assess and communicate the project status and capture and manage issues and risks.

This guidance is like the information that was available for Tool Mentors in the IBM® Practice Library.

About this task

This task provides instructions to manage iterations in the Eclipse client. For guidance on performing these steps in the web client, see the "Supporting tasks" section in each step.

Before you begin

You must complete the steps in Planning an iteration task and be ready to work on the current iteration. Also, make sure that you are familiar with these tasks:

Procedure

  1. Track the current iteration progress.
  2. Capture and communicate the project status.
  3. Handle exceptions and problems.
  4. Identify and manage risks.
  5. Manage objectives.

1: Track the current iteration progress

Continuously monitor the work in an iteration to ensure that it is progressing appropriately and that the objectives will be achieved. You can monitor the iteration progress by using the following views:
  • Team Dashboard view: The team lead can use this view to track high-level project information.
  • My Work view: Team members can use this view to track the status of individual work items.
You can also check the status of the work items committed to the iteration on the Planned Items page of the iteration plan. For each team member, check the number of closed and open work items, which is indicated under the name of each team member. If work items are open or in progress, assign them to the next iteration and re-prioritize as necessary.
Supporting task

2: Capture and communicate the project status

Keep the status information visible to stakeholders and the project team at all times. Prepare and view reports that show the status and progress. You might create reports about the following information:
  • Burndown for iterations and project work
  • Open and closed work items
  • Deferred work items
  • Team velocity
  • Test cases

In the web client, use dashboards so that internal and external stakeholders can see a high-level overview of the iteration and project status. On the dashboards, you can include widgets that show various reports, results of work item queries, feeds from news and events, and other information.

Supporting tasks

3: Handle exceptions and problems

To maintain a list of issues, create a section on the Notes page of the iteration plan or add a page in the iteration plan. To keep a more dynamic list, create work items of or like the type Issue. You can also create a custom work item type. Assign each work items to the iteration in which the work is to be performed, and to a team member who must resolve the issue. Then, find the work items and generate reports that show the status of the issues.
Supporting tasks

4: Identify and manage risks

To keep a dynamic list of risks, create work items of or like the type Risk. You can also create a custom work item type. Assign those work items to the iteration in which the work is to be performed, and to the team member who must resolve the risk. Then, find the work items and run reports that show the status of the risks.
Supporting tasks

5: Manage objectives

Throughout the iteration, revise the iteration plan to adjust the iteration objectives on the Notes page of the iteration plan. If necessary, defer work items by changing the Planned for field of the work items, or by adding the work items to the next iteration plan.
Supporting tasks

Results

During the iteration, the iteration plan is updated to reflect scope changes. Work items are created to resolve risks and issues. Reports are created to show the project status to stakeholders. You can view the changes in the plan by finding work items that are assigned to the iteration.

What to do next

After the end of the iteration, you can assess the iteration results. For more information, see Assessing iteration results.

Resources

Getting started with iteration planning: http://jazz.net/library/article/36